Fall Gutter Overflow Is Wrecking Your Landscaping

Most of what you read about gutters is about the house — the foundation, the fascia, the roof. Fair enough, that's the expensive part. But there's damage happening a lot closer to eye level that homeowners write off as bad luck with plants, and it shows up every fall when the gutters start running over.

WHAT AN OVERFLOWING GUTTER ACTUALLY DOES TO A BED

A gutter that's working spreads roof water across a long run and sends it out a downspout, away from the house. A gutter that's clogged does the opposite. It concentrates all of it into a few spots and dumps it straight down.

That's not a sprinkle. A roof sheds a lot of water in a hard rain, and when it pours off one corner, it lands on whatever is underneath with real force. Over a fall of steady rain, it digs a trench in the mulch, splatters soil up onto the siding, and pounds the plants beneath it flat.

WHY YOUR FOUNDATION PLANTS KEEP DYING

Here's the part that surprises people. Shrubs along the foundation usually don't die from drowning in a single storm. They die from sitting in soil that never dries out.

Constant overflow keeps the ground around the roots saturated week after week. Waterlogged soil has no air in it, roots rot, and the plant slowly declines. Because it's gradual, most homeowners blame the plant, the nursery, or the shade, and replace it with something else that dies the same way in the same spot two years later.

Boxwoods, hydrangeas, and evergreens planted tight against a house are the ones we see suffer the most.

THE MULCH THAT WALKS AWAY

If you mulch every spring and your beds look bare by November, overflow is a likely reason. Water coming off a roofline moves mulch, and it moves it fast. It washes down onto the walk, out onto the lawn, and into the driveway, and it takes topsoil with it.

Over a few seasons you end up with a low spot right against the foundation where the bed used to be crowned, and now the ground slopes toward your house instead of away from it. That's a drainage problem you paid to create, one bag of mulch at a time.

THE OTHER SIGNS AT GROUND LEVEL

A few things to look for the next time you walk the property:

• A narrow channel or trench in the mulch below a gutter corner

• Dirt splashed up on the siding a foot or two off the ground

• Green algae or moss on the foundation, walkway, or patio pavers

• A section of lawn that stays soggy or grows moss instead of grass

• Bare, compacted soil under one spot in an otherwise full bed

• Stone or paver edging that has shifted out of line

Every one of those is water telling you it's going somewhere it shouldn't.

IT'S CHEAPER TO FIX THE GUTTER

This is the part worth sitting with. Replacing a few shrubs and a couple yards of mulch every year costs more over time than clearing the gutters that are killing them. And the plants are the small loss. The same water that's drowning your hydrangeas is soaking the ground against your foundation, and that bill is a different order of magnitude.

If you've been replanting the same spot year after year, stop blaming the plant and look up.

WHAT TO DO THIS FALL

Clear the gutters before the winter rain and snowmelt, make sure every downspout runs free, and get extensions or splash blocks in place so water lands out in the yard instead of in your beds. If a gutter has lost its pitch and holds standing water, that section needs to be re-sloped or it'll overflow no matter how clean it is.

We clear roof valleys and gutters, test every downspout, flush drain lines, and tell you honestly what shape the system is in before winter sets in.

AllDone Gutters and Drains is a family-owned, licensed and insured company serving Columbus, Dublin, Westerville, Hilliard, and Grove City. Call 614-701-6567.

Done right, done once, All Done.